


Ups & Downs

by kormanine



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24759301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kormanine/pseuds/kormanine
Summary: Starring Hiccup and his mess of a life as he attends Berk High, where he learns how to make friends, learns which ones to keep, and falls for a kid with a fake name.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood)
Kudos: 7





	Ups & Downs

Recently, Hiccup has been having the constant urge to scream and _scream_ and **_scream_ ** until he strips his vocal cords of their vocal, forever to walk the earth a mute with the simple comfort of knowing that he'll never be able to voice his idiocy ever again.

Astrid isn't exactly Hiccup's best friend, due to the fact that she's part of a completely separate clique, and is only friends with Hiccup when she feels like it. He can't find it in him to complain, because her friends hate him, and somehow this arrangement has given Astrid the power to keep them off his back. Basically, she protects him, and he doesn't really do much in return, only because Hiccup has no idea how to react to kindness. She's the honourable knight in shining armor while Hiccup, ironically, is the damsel in distress.

But that's not even the sad part. The sad part is that this shallow scope of their relationship automatically makes her the closest thing he's got to a 'bestie'.

In the end, Hiccup can't call her a bad friend, because he's not even sure if he could even call her a friend in the first place. Besides, she's not doing what she's doing for the sake of being friendly. She just sort of pities him.

/

He recently told his dad—rather implicitly, in his defense—that, as a father, he'd probably come off as more caring if he didn't care so much.

That moment had been a weird realization for Hiccup, because he's never been the best at detecting his own hypocrisy. But, basically, he told his dad to lay off, because he really doesn't like sports, especially ones that involve contact, and it's becoming really annoying that his dad keeps pushing him to try football, or basketball, or wrestling, or whatever.

But right now, Hiccup is benched, watching his co-op gym class play a rough game of basketball. It's weird how he's finding more reasons to justify his father's expectations than he can his own. It's fair that maybe his dad just wants to toss a football back and forth with his son from time to time. It's not like he asked Hiccup to join the Olympics. Had Hiccup been in _that_ bad a mood that he turned his father down so quickly?

No, it's more than a bad mood. Hiccup feels sick to his stomach, and it feels like it's growing the more he idly watches Astrid elbowing the opposing team and knocking them to the ground, just so she could miss her three-pointer. She stamps her foot when the ball bounces off the rim, swaying her bangs out of her eyes, and she meets Hiccup's gaze in the process. Hiccup just shrugs it off and looks away, letting Astrid have her fit.

Instead, Astrid walks over to him on the bench, the game continuing behind her. And the first thing she says when she sits beside him is, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Except his unexplainable, sinking feeling of dread.

"You were looking at me," she says, as if she had a point to prove. Hiccup is never sure what her intentions are when she points out things like that, and this is no exception.

"Because you missed your shot." He points towards the game. "You should pass the ball to Guy more, he's a good shooter." He expected to hear Astrid kiss her teeth or something, but it's nothing but silence on his left. He turns his head to see her looking at him, and continues to stare at him without explanation for a good ten seconds. "What?! _Why_ are you looking at me, now?"

"You have this really shitty expression on your face," she says, looking at him as if she can't figure out what it is about his face that annoys her so much.

At this point, he's pretty used to Astrid's attitude, even if it dismantles his own. He can never use sarcasm as a defense against her. She'd just take everything he says literally, then diagnose him as clinically depressed.

But that doesn't mean he has anything good or smart to say in response. "Maybe I'm just ugly."

She hums in apathetic disagreement. "No, that's not it. You said nothing's wrong, but I don't believe you."

It sucks, because she's the only person he could really talk to about these types of things, and the only beneficial thing about telling her is that he gets things off his chest and doesn't end up screaming into his pillow at the end of the day. To add to it, this is the most confusing dilemma he's ever had, and he just doesn't want to bring up this problem without fully understanding it.

But he doesn't have the patience to deal with Astrid's busybody character, nor does Astrid have the will to let the matter slide.

"I just have . . . this bad feeling," Hiccup admits.

"A bad feeling?"

"Like something's gonna happen, and it's not gonna be good."

She's quiet for a moment, and then: "I've been talking to Mr. Aster. He's gonna help us start a GSA."

He's confused at the shift in topic. "What's that?"

"Gay Straight Alliance."

If he had water, he'd spit it out. But he doesn't, so he just chokes on air. He's coughing on the _dust_ from the _rug_ that was _pulled out from under him_.

"Are you sure you're not sick?" Astrid says, outstretching her hand to feel his forehead. He bats her away, clearing his throat.

 _Sick to his stomach_. He must be psychic or something, because his own damn bodily functions foretold the future.

"Astrid." He's got his face in his hands. He feels terrible. "Oh, god, Astrid—"

"What?" It's as if she's feeling a weird mix of annoyance and concern. "Hiccup, you look green. Go drink some water."

He's gonna drink something when he gets home—he's not of age, but he can't imagine his dad caring.

"I'm not—" He is sick—in some way, shape, or form—but that's not the main issue here. "You're starting a club . . . at this school . . . for gay people?"

"'For gay people'? Seriously?" Astrid says, then goes on to explain, "It's to raise awareness for the LGBT-plus community. It's to combat bullying and phobias regarding someone's sexuality—Hiccup, I made this club for you."

"No, oh, my god." He's moaning through his hands at this point, his head between his knees as reality weighs down on him. "Astrid, no, why. Why would you—why would you ever?" This sick feeling doesn't pair well with the mental breakdown he's about to have. This must be how bombs feel before they explode. Bombs don't have feelings, but Hiccup does. Hiccup is about to fucking explode.

But before that could happen, Astrid's concern finally seems to wash away the longer Hiccup continues to be miserable. Eventually, she's got her arms crossed, her eyes narrowed in on him. "You cannot be serious right now."

"Please, tell me you're joking."

She suddenly stands, fuming. " _No_ , Hiccup! This isn't a _joke_!"

"I'm not saying—" He doesn't know what he's saying. But he's realizing how pissed off Astrid really is; realizing that maybe she also feels like a bomb but in a very different way. "Okay." His brain stalls as he tries to lay things out like an equation—he just needs things to make sense. "You made a club—. . ." He pauses, trying to to phrase this correctly—the club is not 'for gay people'. "For _me_ , because . . ." He's gay? No, she reacted weirdly to the 'for gay people' thing. ". . . I'm _different_?"

"You're _gay_ , Hiccup—it's not taboo to say gay."

" _Wh_ —?!" He gives up. He slumps back against the wall and gives up. "Yeah, I don't know about this."

"Oh, please."

"Astrid, seriously—"

"I _am_ being serious, unlike you. Like, I understand our school fucking sucks, but why does this upset you so much? What's the worst that could happen?"

As if on cue, something happens: amidst all the squeaking of sneakers, there's a weird sounding thud against the gym floor, followed by weird sounding reactions from the other students, who begin to crowd towards a particular spot beneath the net. The coach blows his whistle and breaks through the crowd. From the bench, Hiccup and Astrid make out a white-haired kid cradling his arm with his teeth clenched in pain. Looks like Jack just got a wild injury . . . completely unrelated to Hiccup's bad feeling . . . definitely not a coincidence at all . . .

And, yet, the fact that it even happened gives Hiccup all the more reason to believe this bad feeling is truly an earth-threatening crisis.

"See!" Hiccup exclaims. "Bad things are happening!"

Caught off guard and offended, Astrid scoffs and quickly says, "It was _your_ bad feeling!"

Hiccup gives up a second time, deciding the universe merely conjured up his existence for the fun of it, and to make other existences feel better about themselves. Jack may be on the floor with a broken arm, but at least he's not Hiccup, who unknowingly says the stupidest shit and makes situation way worse than they start out.

Astrid unexpectedly softens. "Look, I didn't mean that." She says it more sincerely than she has to, and it looks like she's about to say something else, but then Heather pops into the scene with her arm around Astrid's shoulders, holding up a phone to the blonde's face.

The dark-haired girl mutters something about Jack's arm looking like it has an extra joint. Astrid holds her hand to her gaping mouth while Heather laughs ridiculously.

Hiccup watches silently, observing their friendship from a distance. Heather is undeniably Astrid's best friend, yet Astrid is Hiccup's best friend, and it's weird how the two relationships don't look anything alike.

Soon enough, everyone's leaving for their next class. As Heather drags Astrid away, Astrid shouts over her shoulder, "I'll message you!"

She'll message him. Which means he's going to get a super long ramble-y message detailing how he just needs to step up and take charge of his own life.

The dawning of the Gay Straight Alliance is inevitable. Hiccup has been bestowed a rainbow flag and told to march his way into the school hallways with _pride_. And he's very much aware he's dramatizing this way too much in his head, but the truth of the matter is . . .

. . . he just doesn't want to do this.

The rest of the students leave as the coach is still helping the Jack to his feet. Maybe saying one good thing today will counteract the bad, so as the coach ushers Jack to the exit, Hiccup salutes and tells him, "Wishing you well."

Jack manages to crack a smile despite the pain. "Thanks, man."

And just like that, Hiccup is left alone in the gym to contemplate the shitty plans the gods have in store for him. Now that he's by himself, he realizes there's nothing earth-threatening about this. It's just . . . Hiccup-threatening.

Maybe— _hopefully_ —this GSA thing won't be as terrible as he's expecting it to be.


End file.
